Improvement in billiard-cue-coloring apparatus



2 SheetsSheet 1.

A. FITZGERALD. Billiard-Cue Coloring Apparatus.

No. 220,596. Patented Oct. 14,1879.

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- Billiard-Cue Coloring Apparatus.

No. 220,596. Patented Oct. 14,1879.

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UNITED STATES PATENT CFFICE.

ANTHONY FITZGERALD OF STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HUGH W. COLLENDER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN BlLLlARD-CUE-COLORING APPARATUS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 220,596, dated October 14, 1879; application filed May 24, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ANTHONY FITZGERALD, of Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Billiard-Cue-Ooloring Apparatus 5 and I do hereby'declare that the followin g is a full and exactalescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

My presentinvention relates to a novel means for coloring the butt-ends of billiard-cues, in the manufacture of fancy cues, in imitation of ones made of differentcolored woods, and made according to the invention forming the subject of a separate application by me for a patent for the article, filed simultaneously with this case.

In said other application will be found fully described the objects and advantages of having a fancy cue made all of one piece of light Wood, and colored in imitation of the ones heretofore made of several pieces of wood of different'colors and weights; and I need here only allude to the kind of one proposed to be made, and describe particularly the method practiced and the implements used in the process of coloring such cues.

My invention has for its object to provide for use an apparatus by which the coloring of the butt portion of the one can be done very rapidly and by any unskilled operative, and, at the same time, with a perfection of design and finish in the completed article as great as if the coloring had been done with the greatest degree of skill possible by hand, in the usual manner of coloring surfaces of wood, and so that the finished article shall have precisely the appearance of a cue having its butt formed of spliced or jointed pieces of different-colored woods; and to these ends my invention consists in a clamp device adapted to be securely clasped round about the stick to be operated upon, and having sharp edges to those portions which are to determine lines of demarkation between those portions of the cue-surface to be colored and those parts to be left uncolored, as will be hereinafter more fully explained.

To enable those skilled in the art to understand and practice my invention, I will proceed to describe more fully, by reference to the accompanying drawings, the apparatus used in coloring the cue.

Figure 1 is a side elevation or view of part of the one with my color-clamp attached to it. Fig. 2 is an end view of the same, looking from the larger end of the cue. Fig. 3 is acrosssection at the line 50 ac, Fig. 1, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows at Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a view, on a smaller scale, of the butt portion of a one, and illustrating the appearance of the one after having undergone thecoloring operation, in the manner and while held in the clamp to be hereinafter described.

In the several figures the same part will be found designated by the same letter of reference.

A is the cue to be treated, and B the colorclamp, which I apply thereto, and which, by preference, is held in place on the cue by two (more or less) clamping dogs or riu gs, O, which, as shown, are formed with several lugs, 01, carrying set-screws e, which maybe turned down with any desired force onto the tapering finger like portions f of the clamp.

The four finger-like portions f of the clamp are, by preference, hinged or secured together at their larger ends, as at g, and each one is made with that surface that is to be held against the cue-surface concave, (see f, Fig. 3,) so as to form sharp edges that may be slightly pressed into or embedded in the surface of the one by the enforcement of these portions f against the one by set-screws e.

The object and effect of this construction and operation of these clamp devices are these: By having the edges made sharp or chisel= like, and the surfaces of the hinges f concave, as described, these fingers, by the action of the set-screws 0, can be forced into the surface of the wood in such manner as to effectually prevent the possibility of any liquid color applied to the one outside of the fingers getting beneath the fingers at any point to the slightest extent, and the effect is that not only may liquid color be profusely and quickly applied with a sponge or otherwise only to the parts to be colored, but after the color shall have dried, and the clamp been removed, the line of separation between the colored and uncolored parts of the cue-surface will be clearly defined by a sharp line and slight fine indentation, just about as would occur in the case of an actual close joint between two pieces of wood of different colors.

In the operation of coloringthe cue the clamping device is applied and secured in place, asillustrated by the securing-ringsC and their setscrews e, in the manner just alluded to. The proper color to stain or color the butt portion in imitation of the selected wood is then applied properly with a sponge, and the surface of the one in between the fingers f is easily completely covered with the liquid color. As any possibility of the color running under the edges of the fingers is avoided by the structure of said fingers, (already described,) a profusion of color may be applied to insure the coloring of wood clean up to the intended boundary-lines of the color, and no nicety of workmanship is required. A boy or girl can color many cues in a day, and thus the operation may be performed at small cost.

After the color shall have sufiiciently set and dried the clamp is removed, when the one will present the appearance illustrated at Fig. 4, and may then be varnished, polished, and finished up in the usual manner, and when done will be a perfect imitation of a fancy cue made of woods of different colors, but better and cheaper than such ones. Of course the details of structure and the pattern of the clamp may be varied at the will of the manufacturer and according to the style of fancy cue to be imitated.

The pattern I have shown has four points to the imitated spliced parts; but more or less may be made, the main feature of the structure of the clamp being that its fingers have sharp edges capable of being pressed into the wood surface, as described, and the important feature of the process of coloring being in the perfect separation of the parts of the cue-surface to be colored from those not to be colored, so that the liquid color can be profusely applied, and without any particular degree of care, and yet the result be perfect, as before explained.

Having in another case, filed simultaneously with this, fully described and claimed the new article or product, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a cue-coloring apparatus, the fingers f, having their inner edges made sufiicieutly sharp to penetrate oriudent the surface of the cue, and provided with clamping mechanism for operating the same, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination of the fingersf, having inner knife-edges, with the clamping-rings U and set-screws e, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 21st day of May, 1879.

ANTHONY FITZGERALD. [L. s.]

In presence of CHARLES E. HOLLY, JAMES It. WARREN. 

